Here’s a fun fact: According to LA Times, Makati City in the Philippines is the number one place in the world when it comes to selfies, ahead of New York, Miami, and Cebu City, which is also in the Philippines. With so much drive for social media, the same people over at Bitmarket.ph decided to make a sister company that combined selfies and Bitcoin to further drive adoption, Bitstars.ph
1. How did it all get started?
Bitstars.ph started out as an idea we thought of while sitting in an airport waiting area. We tried to figure out a way to monetize something that people today are so obsessed about getting: “likes”. Bitstars launched on June 9th, 2014, and is a daily web contest awarding Bitcoin prizes to the selfie with the most likes at the end of every 24 hour period. Users join with their IG or FB account, upload their best selfie, and then get their friends to vote for them. Users may also opt to redirect their winnings to a charity of their choice; Bitstars will automatically donate their winnings once a minimum donation amount has been reached.
2. Current Status?
Current statistics as of June 26th, 2014
600+ users
3,400+ selfies
28,635,750 satoshis in tips
13,403,728 satoshis in prizes
We just started this Three weeks ago and it is in early stages of testing but is open to the public. We hope to create an accessible platform for people to see and understand Bitcoin in action.
3. Where do you see Bitstars in the future?
As for the future of bitstars.ph, we would love for it to develop a big user base and be a great way for people to see Bitcoin not just as a speculative asset or techy thing but a useful way to transfer value from one person to another online. We hope to enable instant tipping, and are also working on solutions to integrate its own wallet into the site so that users will not need to go anywhere else when using Bitstars. Maybe one day, we would see really popular accounts making a good amount of money from Bitcoin tips as well, just like youtube turned out to be a way for owners of popular pages to earn money.
4. Why do you believe Filipinos are so obsessed with social media, topping several other social media heavy locations?
Filipinos are obsessed with social media because we have a very sociable culture. People here love knowing what’s going on around them and be constantly updated with news and even gossip. Families love sharing information with each other and this I believe makes social media, especially facebook, a massive hit over here. It is estimated that over 40 million Filipinos have access to the internet, and that mobile phone penetration is at 100% too.
For more information:
http://bitstars.ph/ Photo Source: Miguel Cuenta
